XI. Egoism Versus Altruism

CHAPTER XI. EGOISM VERSUS ALTRUISM. § 68. If insistence on them tends to unsettle establishtni a;ystems of belief, self-evident truths are by nlost people silently passed over; or else there is a tacit refusal to draw from them the most obvious inferences. Of self-evident truths so dealt with, the one which here concerns us is that a creature must live before it can act. From this it is a corollary that the acts by which each maintains his own life nlust, speaking generally, precede in imperativeness all other acts of which he is capable. For if it be asserted that these other acts Ulust precede in imperativeness tIle acts which maintain li£e; and if this, accepted as a general law of conduct, is conformed to by aU; then by postponin g the a<?ts which maintain life to the other acts which life makes possible, all must lose their lives. That is to say, Ethics has to recognize the truth, recognized in unethical thought, that egoism comes befor\) altruism. The acts required for oontinued self-preservation, including the enjoyment of benefits achieved by such act~, are the first requisites to universal welfare. Unless each duly cares for himself, his care for all others' is ended by death; and if each thus dies, there remain no others to be cared for.

This permanent supremacy of egoism. over altruism, made 188 THE DATA OF ETHICS. manifest by contenlplating existing life, is further made nlanifest by contemplating life in course of evolution. § 69. Those who have followed with assent the recent course of thought, do not need telling that throughout past eras, tIle life, vast in alnount and varied in kind, which has overspread the Earth, has progressed in subordination to the law that every individual shall gain by whatever aptitude it has for fulfilling the conditions to its existence. The uniform principle has been that better adaptation shall bring greater benefit; which greater benefit, while increasing the prosperity of the better adapted, shall increase also its ability to leave offspring inheriting more or less its better adapta tion. And, by implication, the uniform principle has been that the ill-adapted, disadvantaged in the struggle for existence, shall bear the consequent evils: either dis appearing when its inlperfections are extreme, or else rearing fewer offspring, which, inheriting its inlperfections, tend to dwindle away in postyrity.

It has been thus with innate superiorities; it has been thus also with acquired ones. All along the law has been that increased function brings increased power; and that there fore such extra activities as aid welfare in any ulember of a race" produce in its structures greater ability to carryon such extra activities: the derived advantages being enjoyed by it to the heightening and lengthening of its life. Con versely, as lessened function ends in lessened structure, the dwindling of unused faculties has ever entailed loss of power to achieve the correlative ends: the result of inado ... quate fulfilment of the ends being diminished ability to nlaintain life. And by inheritance, such functionally-pro duced modifications have respectively furthered or hindered survi val in posterity. As already said, the law that each creature shall take the benefits and the evils of its own nature, be they those derived from ancestry or those due to self-produced EGOISM VERSUS ALTRUISM. 189 modifications, has been the law under which life has evolved thus far; and it Dlust continu~ to be the law however much further life may evolve. Whatever qualifications this natural course of action may now or hereafter undergo, are qualifications that cannot, without fatal results, essentially change it. Any arrangements which in a considerable degree prevent superiority from profiting by the rewards of superiority, or shield inferiority from the evils it entails-any arrangements which tend to make it as well to be inferior as to be superior; are arrangements dianletrically opposed to the progress of organization and the reaching of a higher life.

But to say that each individual shall reap the benefits brought to him by his own powers, "inherited and acquired, is to enunciate egoism u.s an ultimate principle of conduct. It is to say that egoistic claillls must take precedence of altruistic claims. § 70. Under its biological aspect. this proposition cannot be contested by those who agree in the doctrine of Evolution; but probably they will not at once allo\v that· admission of it under its ethical aspect is equally unavoidable. While, as respects development of life, the well-working of the universal principle described is sufficiently manifest; the well-workilig of it as respects increase of happiness may not be seen at once. But the two cannot be disjoined. Incapacity of every kind ando£ whatever degree, causes unhappiness directly· and indirectly-directly by the pain consequent on the overtaxing of inadequate faculty, and indirectly by the non-fulfilment, or ilnperfect fulfilment, of certain conditions to welfare. Conversely, capacity of every kind sufficient for the requirement, conduces to happiness irnn1ediately and remotely-immediately by the pleasure accompanying the normal exercise of each power that is up to its \vork, and remotely by the pleasul'es which are furthered by the ends achieved. A creature that is L90 THE DATA OF ETHICS.

weak or slow of foot, and so gets food only by exhausting efforts or escapes enemies with difficulty, suffers the pains of over-strained powers, of unsatisfied appetites, of distressed emotion s; while the stron g and swift creature of the same species delights in its efficient activities, gains Dlore fully the satisfactions yielded by food as well as the renewed vivacity this gives, and has to bear fewer and smaller pains in defending itself against foes or escaping from them. Similarly with duller and keener senses, or higher and lower degrees of sagacity. rrhe mentally-inferior individual of any race suffers negative and positive miseries; while the mentally-superior individual receives negative and positive gratifications. Inevitably, then, this law in conformity with which each membor of a species takes the consequences of its own nature; and in virtue of which the progeny of each member, participating in its nature, also takes such con sequences; is one that tends ever to raise the aggregate happiness of the species, by furthering the multiplication of the happier and hindering that of the less happy.

All this is true of human beings as of other beings. The conclusion forced on us is that the pursuit of individual happiness within those limits prescribed by social conditions, is the first requisite to the attainment of the greatest general happiness. To see this it needs but to contrast one whose self-regard has maintained bodily well-being, with one whose regardlessness of self has brought its natural results; and then to ask what nlust be the contrast between two societies formed of two such kinds of individuals. Bounding out of bed after an unbroken sleep, singing or whistling as he dresses, coming down with beaming face ready to laugh on' the smallest provocation, the healthy finn' of high powers, conscious of past successes and by his energy, quickness, resource, made confident of the future, enters on the day's business not with repugnance but with gladness j and from hour to hour experiencing satisfac tions from work effectually done, comes home with an EGOISM VERSUS ALTRUISM. 191 abundant surplus of energy remaining for hours of relaxa ..

tion. Far otherwise is it with one who is enfeebled by great neglect of self. Already deficient, his energies are made 'more deficient by constant endeavours to executo tasks that prove beyond his strength, and by the resulting discouragement. Besides the depressing consciousness of the immediate future, there is the depressing con sciousness of the remoter future, with its probability of accumulated difficulties and dinlinished ability to meet them. Hours of leisure which, rightly passed, bring pleasures that raise the tide of life and renew the powers of work, cannot be utilized: there is not vigour enough for enjoyments involving action, and lack of spirits prevents pflssive enjoyments fronl being entered upon with zest. In brief, life becomes a burden. N ow if, as must be admitted, in a con1munity composed of individuals like the first the happiness will be relatively great, while in one composed of individuals like the last there will he relatively little happiness, or rather much nlisery; it must be admitted that conduct causing the one result is good and conduct causing the other is bad.

But diminutions of general happiness are produced by inadeq nate egoism in several other ways. These we will snccessively glance at. § 71. If there were no proofs of heredity-if. it were the rule that the strong are usually begotten by the weak while the weak usually descend fronl the strong, that viva cious children form the families of melancholy parents while fath,ers and mothers with overflowing spirits n10stly havo dun progeny, that from stolid peasants there ordiuariJy come sons of high intelligence while the sons of the cultured are cOlnmonly fit for nothing but following _the plough-if there we~e no translnission of gout, scrofula, insanity, and did the diseased habitually give birth to the healthy and the healthy to the diseased, writers on Ethics 14: 192 THE DArA OF ETHICS. might be justified in ignoring those effects of conduct which al~e felt by posterity thJ~ough the natures they inherit.

As it is, however, the current ideas concerning the relative claiuls of egoism and altruism are vitiated by the omission of this aU-important factor. For if health, strength und capacity, are usually transmitted; and if disease, feeblauess, stupidity; generally reappear in descendants; then a rational altruism requires insistance on that egoislll which is shown by receipt of the satisfactions accompanying preservation of body and mind in the best state. The necessary implication is that blessings are provided for offspring by due self-regard, while disregard of self carried too far provides curses. When, indeed, we renlember how commonly it is renlal·ked that high health and overflowing spirits render any lot in life tolerable, while chronic aihnents make gloonlY a life most favourably circum .. st~nced, it beconles amazing that both the world at large and writers who Inake conduct their study, should ignore the terrible evils which disregard of personal well..

being inflicts on the unborn, and the~ncalclllable good laid up for the unborn by attention to personal well. being. Of all bequests of parellts to children the most valuable is a sound constitution. Though a man's body is not a property that caube inherited, yet his constitution may fi61y be compal'ed to an entailed estate; and if he rightly understands his duty to posterity, he will see that he .is bound to pass on that estate uninjured if not improved. To say this is to say that he must be egoistic to the extent of satisfying all those desires associated with tho dne performance of functions. Nay" it is to say more. It is to say that he lTIUSt seek in due amounts the various pleasures which life offers. For beyond the effect these have in raising the tide of life and maintaining constitll" tional vigour; there is the effect they ,have in preserving and increasing a capacity for receiving enjoyment. Endowed with abundant energjes a,nd various tastes, sonle can ge1 EGOISM 'VERSUS ALTRUISM. 193 gratifications of many kinds on opportunities hourly occur ring; while others are so inert" and so uninterested in things around, that they cannot even take the trouble to amuse them.

selves. And unless heredity be denied, the inference must be that due acceptance of the miscellaneous pleasures life offers, oonduces to the capacity for enjoyment in posterity; and that persistence in dull monotonous lives by parents, diminishes the ability of their descendants to make the best. of what gratifications fall to them. ~ 72. Beyond the decrease of general happiness which results in this indirect way if egoism is unduly subordinated, there' is a decrease of general happiness which results in a direct way. He who carries self-regard far enough to keep himself in good health and high spirits, in the first place thereby becomes an immediate source of happiness to those around, and in the second place maintains the ability to increase their happiness by altruistic actions. But one whose bodily vigour and mental health are under mined by' seH-sacrifice carried too far, in the first place becomes to those around a cause of depression, and in the second place renders himself incapable, or less capable, of actively furthering their welfare.

In estimating conduct we must remember that there are those who by their joyousness beget joy in others, and that there are those who by their melancholy cast a gloom on every circle they enter. And we must remember that by (Jisplay of overflowing happiness a nlan of the one kind may add to the happiness of others more than by positive.·efforts to benefit them; and that a, man of the other kind nlay decrease their happiness more by his presence thaE he increases it by his actions. Full of vivacity, the one is ever welcome. For his wife he has smiles and jocose speeches; for his children stores of fun and play; for his friends pleasant talk interspersed with the sallies of wit that come from buoyancy. Contrariwise, the other is shunned.

194 THE DATA OF ETHICS. The irritability resulting now from ailments, noW' from failures caused by feebleness, his family has daily to bear. Lacking adequate energy for joining in them., he has at best but a tepid interest in the amusements of his children; and he is called a wet blanket by his friends. Little account as our ethical reasonings take note of it, yet is the fact obvious that since happiness and misery are infectious, such regard for self as conduces to health and high spirits is a benefaction to others, and such disregard of self as brings on suffering, bodily or mental, is a malefaction to others. The duty of making one's self agreeable by seeming to be pleased, is, indeed, often urged; and thus to gratify friends is applauded so long as self-sacrificing effort is implied. But though display of real happiness I gratifies friends far more than display of sham happiness, and has no dra,vback in the shape either of hypocrisy or strain, yet it is not thought a duty to fulfil the conditions which favour the display of real happine~s. Nevertheless, if quantity of happiness produced is to be the measure, the last is more imperative than the first.

And then, as above indicated,beyond this primary series of effects produced on others there is a secondary series of effects. The adequately egoistic individual retains those powers which make altruistic activities possible. The indi vidual who is inadequately egoistic, loses more or less of his ability to be altruistic. The truth of the one proposition is self-evident; and the truth of the other is daily forced on ns by examples. Note a few of them. Here is a mother who, brought up in the insane fashion usual among the cultivated, has a physique not strong enough for suckling her infant, but who, kno"ring that its natural food is the best, and anxious for· its welfare, continues to give it milk for a longer time than her system will bear. Eventually the accu.. lnulating reaction tells. There comes exhaustion running, it may be, into illness caused by depletion; occasionallyend ing in death, and often entailing chronic weakness. She EGOISM VERSUS ALT~UIS:M. 195 b~comes, perhaps for a time, perhaps permanently, incapable of carrying on household affairs ; her other children suffer from the loss of maternal attention; and where the incomo is small, payments for nurse and doctor tell injuriously OIl the whole family. Instance, again, what not unfre.

quently happens with the father. Similarly prompted by a high sense of obligation, and misled by Current mOI'a} theories into the notion that self-denial may rightly be carried to any extent, he daily continues his office-work for long hours regardless of hot head and cold feet; and debars himself from social pleasures, for which he thinks he can afford neither time nor money. What comes of this entirely . unegoistic course? Eventually a sudden collapse, sleepless. ness, inability to work. That rest which he would not give himself when his sensations prompted, he has now to take in long measure. The extra earnings laid by for the benefit of his family, are quickly swept away by costly journeys in aid of recovery, and by the many expenses which illness entails. Instead of increased ability to do his duty by his offspring, there comes now inability. Life.long evils on them replace hoped-for goods. And so is it, too, with the social effects of inadequate egoism. All grades furnish examples of the mischiefs, positive and negative, inflicted on society by excessive neglect of self. Now the case is that of a labourer who, conscientiously continuing his work under a broiling sun, spite of violent protest from bis feelings, dies of sunstroke j and leaves his family a burden to the parish. Now the case is that of a clerk whose eyes permanently fail from over-straining, or who, daily writing for hours after his £ngers are painfully cramped, is attacked wilh (( scrivener's palsy.." and, unable to write at all, sinks with aged parents into poverty which friends are called on to mitigate. And now the case is that of a man devoted \ to public ends who, shattering his health by ceaseless appli cation, fails to achieve all he might have achieved by a more 196 TH.&! DATA OF ETHICS.

reasonable apportionment of his time bet"ween labour on behalf of others and ministration to his own needs. § 73. In one further way is the undue subordination of egoism to altruism injurious. Both directly and indirectly unselfishness pushed to excess generates selfishness. Consider first the immediate effects. That one D1an may yield up to another a gratification, it is needful that the other shall accept it; and where the 'gratification is of a kind to which their respective claims are equal, or which is no more required by the one than by the other, acceptance implies a readiness to get gratification at another's cost. The circumstances and needs of the two being alike, the transaction involves as much culture of egoislll in the last as it involves culture of altruism in the first. It is true that not unfrequently, difference between their means or difference between their appetites for a p leasure which the one has had often and the other rarely, divests the accept ance of this character; and it is .true that in other cases the benefactor manifestly takes so ll1uch pleasure in giving pleasure, that the sacrifice is partial, and the receptjon of it not wholly selfish. But to see the effect above indicated ,ve must exclude such inequalities, alld consider what happens where wants are approximately alike and where the sacri fices, not reciprocated at intervals, are perpetually on one side. So restricting the inquiry all can nanle instances verifying the alleged result. Everyone can remember circles in which the daily surrender of benefits by the gene} rous to the greedy, has caused increase of greediness; until there has been produced an unscrupulous egoism intolerallls to all around. There are obvious socjal effects of kinch'cd nature. Most thinking people now recognize the dernorali zation caused by indiscriminate charity. They see ho,v in the mendicant there is, besides destruction of the llormal relation between labour expended aud benefit obtained) EGOIS){ V~RSUS ALTRUISM. 197 a ge!lt~sis of the expectation that others shall minister to his needs; showing itself sometimes in the venting of curses on those 'who refuse.

Next consider the remote results. When the egoistic clainls are so llluch subordinated to the altruistic as to produce physicalll1ischief, the tendency is towards a relative decrease in the number of the altruistic, and therefore an. increased· predominance of the egoistic. Pushed to extremes, sacrifice of self for the benefit of others, leads occasionally to death before the ord}nary period of marriage; leads sometimes to abstention from marriage,. as in sisters of charity; leads sonletirnes to an ill-health or a loss of attrac tiveness which prevents marriage; leads sonletimes to non acquirement of the pecuniary means noedeu £01' .marriage ; and in all these cases, therefore, the unusually altruistic leave no descendants. Where thepostponementt or personal welfare to the welfare of others has not been carried so far as to prevent nHtrriago, it yet not un£req uently occurs that the physical degradation resulting £romyears of self-neglect causes infel'·tility; so that again the most altruistically natured leave no like-natured posterity. And then in less marked and more numerous cases, the resulting enfeeble ment shows itself by the production of relatively weak off spl·ing; of 'whOln some die early, \vhile the rest are less likely than usual to transmit the parental type to future generations. Inevitably, then, by this dying out of the especially unegoistic, there is prevented that desirable mitiga tion of egoism in the average nature which would else have taken place. Such disregard of self as brings down bodily vigour below the norn1al level, eventually produces in the society a counterbalancing excess of regard for self.

~ 74. That egoism precedes altruism in order of impera .. tiveness, is thus clearly shown. The acts which make continued life possible, nUlst, on the average, be 'more peremptory than all those other acts which life makes 198 THE DATA OF ETHICS. possible; including the acts which benefit others. Turning from life as existing to life as evolving, we are equally shown this. Sentient beings have progressed from low to high types, under the law that the superior shall profit by their suporiority and the inferior shall suffer from their inferiority. Conforn1ity to this law has been, and is still, needful, not 'only for the continuance of life but £0r the increase of happi .. DeBs; since the superior are those having faculties better adjusted to the requirenlents-faculties, therefore, which bring in t/heir exercise greater pleasure and less pain. More special considerations join these more general ones in showing us this truth. Suc.:h egoism as preserves a vivacious mind in a vigorous body furthers the happiness o£ descendants, whose inherited constitutions make the labours of life easy and its pleasures keen; while, conversely, unhappiness is entailed on posterity by those who bequeath bhem constitutions injured by self-neglect. Again, the ';ndividual whose well-conserved life shows itself in over· .flowing spirits, becon1es, by his mere existence, a source of pleasure to all around; while the depression which com monly accolnpanies ill-health diffuses itself through family :lnd among friends. A further contrast is that whereas one who has been duly regardful of Bel£ retains the power of being helpful to others, thel'e results from self-abnegation in excess, not only an inability to help others but the inflic tion of positive burdens on thern. Lastly, we come upon the truth that undue altruism increases egoism; both directly in contemporaries 81Dd indirectly in posterity.

And now observe that though the general conclusion enforced by these speci3,l conclusions, is at variance with nominally-accepted beliefs, it is not at variance with actually .. Accepted beliefs. While opposed. to the doctrine which 'men are taught should be acted upon, it is in harmony with the doctrine which they do act upon and dimly see must be acted upon. For on11tting such abnOr111alitiesof conduct as are instanced above, everyone, alike by deed and word, EGOISll VERSUS ALTRUISM. 199 hnpli~s that in the business of life personal welfare is tIle primary consideration. The labourer looking for wages in return for work done, no less than the merchant who sells gvods at a profit, the doctor who expects fees for advice, the priest who calls the scene of his ministrations (( a living/' assumes as beyond question the truth that selfishness, carried to the extent of enforcing his claims and enjoying the returns his efforts bring, is not only legitimate but essential. Even persons who avow a contrary conviction prove by their acts that it is inoperative. Those who repeat with emphasis the maxim -" Love your neighbour as yourself,"

do not render up what they possess so as to satisfy the desires of all as much as they satisfy their own desires. Nor do those whose extreme maxim is-" I.Jive for others," differ appreciably from people around in their' regards for personal welfare, or fail to appropriate their shares of life's pleasures. In short, that which is above set forth as the belief to which scientific ethics leads us, is that 1vhich men do really believe, as distinguished from that which they believe they believe. . Finally it may be remarked that a rational egoism, so fa] from irnplying a more egoistic human nature, is consistent with a human nature that is less egoistic. For excesses in one direction do not prevent excesses in the opposite direc tion; but rather, extreme deviations from the mean on one side lead"to extreme deviations on the other side. A society in which the most exalted principles of self-sacrifice for the benefit of neighbours are· enunciated, may be a society in which unscrupulous sacrifice of alien fellow-creatures is not only tolerated but applauded. Along with professed anxiety to spread these exalted principles among heathen@, there may go the deliberate fastening of a quarrel upon them with a view to annexing their territory. Men who every Sunday have listened approvingly to injunctions carrying the regard for other men to an impracticable extent, may yet hire themselves out to slay, at the word 200 THE DATA OF ETHICS.

of command, any people in any part of the world, utterly indifferent to the right or wrong of the u1atter fought about. And as in these cases transcendent altruism in theory co exists with brutal egoism in practice, so, conversely, a more qualified altruism may have for its concomitant a groa tly moderated egoism. For asserting the due claims of self, is, by implication, drawing a limit beyond which the claims al~e undue; and is, by consequence, bringing intJO greater clearness the claims of others.